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Sunday, April 1, 2012

Easy Beef-less Empanadas for Brunch

A while back, I put together a brunch party for my friends. It was one of those times when everyone I invited happened to accept. I wondered how I could pull off eggs for twelve.

Once I decided the Latin theme, the answer to the egg dilemma was simple. I would make a hearty casserole of black beans and tomatoes, topped with eggs. Instead of experimenting and concocting, I found a great recipe from Kalyn's Kitchen for Mexican Baked Eggs.

I needed a secondary protein dish - something to take the place of sausage or bacon. Since my husband had been bugging me to make vegetarian empanadas, I decided to go that route. It was an undertaking too big for a sleepy Sunday morning, but I was determined.

It's been ages since I cooked meat, especially ground beef, but for some reason I wanted the real thing that weekend. I knew my friends would be into it, too. So I actually doubled my workload and made both real beef and fake beef empanadas - careful to avoid cross-contamination. I wanted them to taste authentic, and I didn't have time to test them out before the brunch unveiling, so I went with a classic Goya recipe for Beef Turnovers. You can't go wrong with Goya!

It turned into a taste-test challenge with my friends, actually. Which empanada was meat, and which was fake meat? Could you tell? Which one do you like better? In this case, we got people to try fake meat and they actually liked it as much as the real thing.

Although I had the random craving for this Latin brunch in February, it would make a great Cinco de Mayo brunch. It falls on a Saturday this year, so you'll need that high-protein base for a day of celebrating with cervezas y margaritas! And don't forget that cute little piñata!

If I had to do it again, I'd add a couple things to the plan - it would go something like this: